Book Wrangling Review: Cuil

Positives: The search results page is incredibly inviting and attractive. The designers realized that users do not move beyond the first two pages of results in a standard list display so they must have worked on a alternative to the gigantic list. The results are impressive as your eye easily moves around the page instead of focusing directly at the top of a list and moving down. Also, there is more descriptive content under the link than in other search engines.

The liberal use of images, logos, and graphics.You will find it confusing when you move to the second and third pages of the results and see the same pictures that you saw on the first page of results. Your first inclination is that the same pages are popping up again and again but they are simply using the images again and again with unique links. Obviously, if you do this then you are misrepresenting the link as that image may have nothing to do with the link. This isn't the point though. The point is to provide visual access to the subject matter. I like this approach much better than a separate image search or a distracting frame filled with pictures.

The explore more categories on the right are excellent. My Google searches often lead to more and more refined versions of my original search query. By checking the explore by category options on the right I can take my search to another direction and one that I might not have originally thought of before.

Negatives: The results are odd and don't always make much sense. A search for an author gives you many results on books to purchase but shows very little that discusses the life of the author. Also, the results seem to be absent of any timeliness. Typing in the latest news makers gives you very little that points to recent activity involving the subject. The results seem to be heavy on Wikipedia and Mahalo entries which is fine but offers a rather static feel to the results rather than enlivening the ever expanding nature of the web and the information found in it.

Stumble On

I have recently become a stumbler through StumbleUpon.com. I have a cautious approach to new technology. I enjoy finding them and playing with them but I am not that interested in adding more to my online experience. I am trying to simplify my online environment and adding plugin after plugin or toolbars or widgets is a waste of time and a good way to muddle up my computer screen and browser.

But when I came across a blog post about using web 2.0 tools to be more efficient with your information I took the plunge using StumbleUpon (SU). I am cautiously hooked. SU takes a set of personal preferences and with a click of a button starts feeding you websites that match your preferences. If you like the website you can rate it with a thumbs up and if you dislike it you can rate it with a thumbs down. Sites that have not been rated before will open up a box for you to review the site for other Stumblers. By consistently rating the sites that you see you set the pattern for the type of sites that will be fed to you in the future.

The best use of this for me is combining SU with Del.icio.us. When SU sends me a site that I think will be helpful for personal use or for library use I will tag the site in Del.icio.us for future reference. The amount of great library sites that I have found through SU is tremendous.

The aspect that I have not totally grasped is how to use SU to locate the best sites on a particular subject like you would using Google. You can go to SU and do a keyword search but I assume that the value of the site is based on Stumbler reviews which would limit the options because of a potential for many sites not being reviewed.

When using any search engine I often get the feeling that many times there is an "on the nose" website that is just beyond my grasp. SU seems to feed you quality websites and your ability to rate the sites instantly customizes what comes next. I am still in the "new toy" phase of using SU but I don't foresee myself eliminating this tool anywhere in the near future.